Anwar Ibrahim |
| Pakatan Yakin Menang Hampir 140 kerusi, kata sumber Posted: 23 Feb 2013 11:26 PM PST Pakatan Rakyat (PR) yakin akan memenangi hampir 140 kerusi parlimen dalam Pilihan Raya 2013 dengan kemenangan di Sabah, Sarawak dan Johor akan memberikan mereka majoriti mudah untuk menubuhkan kerajaan, kata sumber. The Malaysian Insider difahamkan pemimpin PR telah menghitung peluang di beberapa negeri tetapi bilangan mereka bergantung kepada keupayaan untuk menyatukan pembangkang di Sabah. Disebalik keyakinan PR, pemerintah Barisan Nasional (BN) telah membuat tinjauan yang menunjukkan mereka boleh menang sehingga 145 kerusi, lebih tinggi dari 112 kerusi untuk majoriti mudah dan di bawah 148 kerusi untuk majoriti dua pertiga. Najib di Sarawak hari ini, seminggu selepas menghabiskan dua hari di Sabah minggu lalu. — Gambar fail Kemenangan DAP, PAS dan PKR selepas bekerjasama pada 2008 menyebabkan penubuhan PR walaupun ianya masih belum berdaftar. BN merupakan satu-satunya gabungan politik berdaftar di Malaysia. Pemimpin de facto PR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim telah memberi tahu agensi berita Bloomberg pertempuran utama dalam Pilihan Raya 2013 adalah di Sabah dan Sarawak, yang menawarkan 56 daripada 222 kerusi parlimen. Kedua-dua negeri Borneo itu dilihat sebagai "deposit tetap" untuk BN tetapi Suruhanjaya Siasatan Di Raja (RCI) mengenai pemberian kewarganegaraan sebagai pertukaran kepada undi memberikan imej buruk kepada gabungan pemerintah itu. Krisis dengan militan bersenjata Sulu di bandar pantai timur Lahad Datu di Sabah telah menimbulkan persoalan tentang keupayaan Putrajaya untuk mempertahankan negeri tersebut. Difahamkan PR berharap untuk menang besar di Sarawak dan Sabah, bukan hanya di kawasan bandar di mana masyarakat Cina dominan menyokong parti pembangkang itu tetapi juga di beberapa kawasan luar bandar di mana pemimpin PR telah menerima sambutan yang hangat. Pakatan juga memberikan tumpuan di Johor dimana beberapa pemimpin penting PAS dan DAP dihantar untuk bertanding. Ini termasuklah Naib Presiden PAS Salahuddin Ayub dan ahli strategi DAP Liew Chin Tong — masing-masing merupakan ahli parlimen. "Kami mendapat respon yang baik dari penduduk Sabah dan Sarawak dan ini membimbangkan BN. Sebab itu pemimpin BN melawat dua negeri tersebut dengan lebih kerap," kata sumber dari PR kepada The Malaysian Insider. Najib di Sarawak hari ini, seminggu selepas menghabiskan dua hari di Sabah minggu lalu. Pengerusi BN itu mempunyai satu lagi pusingan melawat negeri yang akan berakhir di kerusi parlimennya Pekan pada 16 Mac. The Malaysian Insider melaporkan baru-baru ini Najib berkemungkinan membubarkan parlimen selepas 16 Mac dan mendapatkan mandat pertamanya dengan pilihan raya yang akan diadakan pada pertengahan April. Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) akan mengazetkan daftar pemilih terbaru hari ini dan dilaporkan 13.64 juta telah mendaftar sebagai pengundi, termasuk 3,000 dari luar negara. SPR akhirnya membenarkan rakyat Malaysia yang tinggal di luar negara untuk mengundi — sebelum ini hanya diberikan kepada pekerja kerajaan dan pelajar tajaan kerajaan dalam pilihan raya lalu. |
| Demand for Clean Elections Exercise in Futility Posted: 23 Feb 2013 11:18 PM PST Malaysiakini As the 13th general election draws near, the will of the people hangs in the balance as the question of free and fair elections remains unanswered. The right to such a process is recognised in all democracies. Three conditions must be fulfilled: an independent audit of the electoral roll, a minimum campaign period of reasonable duration and allowing international observers at polling stations. The Najib Abdul Razak administration’s action last week in detaining and deporting Australian senator Nick Xenophon (right), who was in Kuala Lumpur to meet with me as well as leaders of the ruling party to discuss ways and means to meet those conditions, has rendered the demand for free and fair elections an exercise in futility. Meanwhile, the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat remains severely disadvantaged in campaigning. There is no access to the mainstream print and electronic media which, despite being largely funded by taxpayers’ money, are used as a propaganda machine in ways not seen since the time of Goebbels. Vicious lies are spread about the opposition’s mismanagement of state governments, characters of key opposition leaders are assassinated and a movie is set to be screened nation-wide, calculated undoubtedly to sow hostility and hatred among the indigenous Malay community towards ethnic minorities, particularly the Chinese. So we resort to self-help to travel the land and take the message home directly to the people. But where’s the right to security for our lives and property? Campaign buses and cars get pelted with stones and splashed with paint. Speakers are attacked and some supporters were knifed, with violent acts caught on camera. Ban on Xenophon To ensure free and fair elections, there must be protection of the law, but complaints to the police fall on deaf ears. The home minister tells the media that he can’t guarantee our safety. Yes, this is the same man who issued the ban order on Xenophon and then proclaimed that this was a routine matter. Labelling a visiting law maker from a friendly country “a security threat” and “an enemy of the state” is a routine matter? Meanwhile, the veracity of electoral rolls remains unresolved with hundreds of thousands of phantom votes in the list. In an on-going inquiry on citizenship-for-votes, it was revealed that for Sabah alone, more than 40,000 registered voters were on the highly suspect list. Other independent checks in other states have likewise revealed similar major discrepancies. This is fraud perpetrated on a grand scale, with the Election Commission itself being culpable. Helmed by people who were card carrying members of the ruling Umno, a fact that had remained secret until it was exposed by independent watchdogs, how can anyone expect the Election Commission to remain fair and impartial? Complaints on the presence of significant numbers of phantom voters are ignored. The commission chair and deputy then go town to bash the opposition for 'selling out’ the country’s sovereignty by calling for international observers. Right-wing groups brand it as an act of treason. ‘What’s there to hide?’ Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has called for S Ambiga, the co-chair of Bersih, the democratic reform movement Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, to be stripped of her citizenship. Indeed, the test of free and fair elections is not merely allowing international observers but welcoming them with open arms because they lend credibility to the process as well as the outcome. If our elections are free and fair, what’s there to hide? In this regard, Xenophon, as well as other international would-be observers, will no doubt be a threat but only to those who believe they are entitled to perpetual power. The fear of losing power haunts them making them desperate in action and in word. The left hand sometimes doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. And no one shows this up better than the prime minister himself. On the one hand, Najib (left) invites the international media to cover his economic transformation programme and touts it as a decisive move towards democratic reform. He tops it up with visits overseas, Australia being one of the first on the itinerary. In Melbourne and in Sydney he spoke to local audiences about how genuine his government was in steering the country towards freedom and democracy. Can’t have it both ways On the other hand, as the Xenophon debacle illustrates, his administration now decries “foreign interference in its internal affairs” and declares that “outsiders must keep their hands off our electoral process”. Well, Mr Prime Minister, you can’t have it both ways. First, you blew away millions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money in travelling to other countries to promote your persona as an emerging reform-driven democratic leader. Then you tell lawmakers from those countries who are coming to verify the truth of what you have been saying that this is none of their business! So, Xenophon was indeed a “security risk”, but not to the Malaysian people. The only rationale for his expulsion is that he represents a serious threat to the Umno government because of his advocacy for clean elections in Malaysia. But, as I have said on day one of his arrest, Malaysia does not belong to Umno. It belongs to all its citizens, regardless of their political affiliation. Facile acts of reform done with much fanfare may help in the promotion of one’s persona. But it only takes one act of desperation to tear the veneer of hypocrisy and diabolical maneuvering. To repeal the Internal Security Act only to replace it with another law that gives the police even wider powers of detention is a classic example. Expelling a lawmaker on a mission for electoral reform is yet another. However, come polling day, despite the cheating and the fraud, we believe the people will triumph. |
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